Spock Must Die!
| stardate = 4011.9 | date = 2269 | author = James Blish | format = paperback | published = | reprint = March 1985 & June 1999 | pages = 118 | publisher = Bantam Books | ISBN = ISBN 0553107976 | altcover = spockMustDie1.jpg }} An exciting new story of interplanetary adventure.—''Spock Must Die!'' is a Star Trek novel by James Blish, published in January 1970. Although several adaptations preceded Spock Must Die!, this work was the first original Star Trek prose publication by Bantam Books, and the second overall following Mission to Horatius, which was a young adult novel. That makes Spock Must Die! the first original Star Trek literature not intended for young readers. Introduction ;1970 cover : Captain Kirk and the crew of the starship find themselves in the middle of an undeclared war waged by the Klingon Empire... :''The Organians should be consulted about the war but their entire planet has disappeared—or been destroyed... :Mr. Spock entered the transporter chamber. His image would be flashed to Organia by the huge machine's faster-than-light tachyons. But the experiment failed. Suddenly there were two Mr. Spocks. One of them had to be destroyed... :But which one? ;1985 Cover : Captain's log, stardate 4181.4. We are at war with the Klingon Empire. :Launching an unprovoked attack upon the Federation, the Klingons have broken the terms of the Organian Peace Treaty—leaving the ''Enterprise stranded deep in uncharted space, cut off from the rest of the Federation fleet. :To find out what happened to the Organians, Commander Scott rigged an experimental modification to our transportation system designed to enable a tachyon replica of Mr. Spock to travel faster-than-light to Organia. But the experiment failed, and incredibly, left us with two identical Spocks: one of whom is a replica in every way opposite of our first officer, a traitor whose continued existence poses a grave threat to the ''Enterprise and quite possibly the entire Federation.'' :One of the Spocks must die. But which one? Summary The USS Enterprise is mapping a region of deep space near the Shapley Center. During a philosophical discussion between McCoy and Scott on the nature of the transporters, word is received that war with the Klingons has broken out, Organia has apparently been destroyed, and the Enterprise has been cut off from the Federation. Kirk decides to head through Klingon space to Organia to find out why the Organians have not intervened, a journey which will take nearly six months. To save time, Scott proposes to Kirk that they use tachyons to create a temporary copy of Spock, beam him to Organia, and retrieve him with the information they need. However, when the experiment is carried out and the sealed transporter is opened, they find that not only has the copy failed to reach Organia, but a duplicate Spock has been created. The two Spocks (which Kirk dub Spock One and Spock Two) each claim to be the original and take an immediate dislike to each other. Spock Two insists to Kirk that Spock One be destroyed without explaining why, but with no way of knowing which is the duplicate and which the original, Kirk decides to keep both of them on as first officer on separate shifts. Shortly afterwards, the Enterprise drops out of warp for a second on one of the Spock's instructions, risking its detection by the Klingons and forcing Kirk to relieve both of them from duty. Spock Two theorizes that the duplicate is a mirror image, reversed by whatever stopped it from reaching Organia: not just his anatomy, but his mind as well... meaning that one of the Spocks is now loyal to the Klingons. Spock One barricades himself in McCoy's laboratory and refuses to leave unless Spock Two is destroyed. The Enterprise reaches Organia, where they find it surrounded by an energy shield which produces strong feelings of horror in the crew. Before they can investigate, they are attacked by a Klingon battlecruiser. During the battle, the Enterprise uses the deflector beam and the tractor beam together to plant a mine in the Klingon ship's warp field, destroying it. In a subsequent meeting, both Spocks insist they will only help the crew once the other has been destroyed, but McCoy claims that he has worked out that Spock One is the duplicate -- just as he escapes. Kirk and McCoy discover that Spock One, being a mirror duplicate and therefore unable to consume normal food, had been using the equipment and chemicals in the lab to manufacture the nutrients he needed to survive. They detect a shuttlecraft leaving the hangar deck and head for Organia at warp speed. Kirk, Spock Two and Scott beam down to Organia, where the two humans suffer from intense and terrifying hallucinations due to the effect of the thought-shield. They encounter Spock One, who is destroyed in a mental battle with Spock Two with some aid from Kirk. They make contact with the Organians, who take them to the stolen shuttlecraft. Scott constructs a device which, powered by the modified engine, disables the thought-shield. The Organians, now free to act, punish the Klingons by depriving them of space flight for a thousand years. The war over, the Enterprise reports to Starbase 16 for two weeks down time and a new assignment. References Characters :Ayelborne • Christine Chapel • Pavel Chekov • Claymare • James T. Kirk • Koloth • Kor • Korax • Leonard McCoy • Janice Rand • Montgomery Scott • Spock • Spock One • Hikaru Sulu • Trefayne • Nyota Uhura • • God • Goliath • Charles Vernon Gridley • Sherlock Holmes • James Joyce • Alfred Korzybski • Joanna McCoy • John Milton • Isaac Newton • Pablo Picasso • Shylock • William of Occam Starships and vehicles :clipper ship • corvette • ( class I heavy cruiser) • Galileo II • • galleon • kayak • battleship Locations :Organia • Organian system • Shapley Center • Klingon homeworld (Senate hall) Bosklave • Earth (Caernarvon • Caribbean • Spain) • Great Nebula Area of Orion • Sherman's Planet • Starbase 16 • Starbase 28 Races and cultures :Human (Anglo-American • Bantu • English • Greek • Oriental • Spanish • Swahili) • Klingon • Organian • Vulcan Melkotian • Romulan States and organizations :Command Academy • Grand Senate of the Klingon Empire • Klingon Empire • Klingon High Command • Organian Council of Elders • Scientific Advisory Board • Space Service • Starfleet • Starfleet Academy • United Federation of Planets Other references :amino acid • Ancient West • anorexia nervosa • astronomical unit • bench-mark • bench-marking • berserker • brass • bullet • • carbohydrate • castle • chess • chi-quare • chronon • Command Academy ring • counter-current distributor • credit • crutch • Dalton recension • deflector beam • deflector screen • Dirac jump • Easter • eglon • electric chair • ethon gas • Eurish • Finnegans Wake • fluoroscopy • formaldehyde • Fundamentals of Naval Engagement • • glow-pup • hallucination • Hilbert space • homing missile • hydrogen • ion exchange column • iron • Klingon War • Latin • loupe • mathom • McCoy's Paradox • The Merchant of Venice • microphone • mind-lock • mine • missile • nuclear fission • Occam's Razor • Othello • phaser • photon torpedo • • radiolarian • robe • sabot • Senator in Chief • sling • soul • stellor • subspace • superman • tachyon • Thirty Years' War • thought-shield • transporter • tricorder • turboelevator • underwear • uniform • Vegan rickettsial fever • X-ray Animals and plants :beademungen • beetle • baobab • cat • chicken • escallopolyp • gnat • gormenghastly • laburnum • lichen • • ox • rabbit • reepicheep • seaweed • skopolamander • tnucipen • tribble • uniped • wog • Xixobrax jewelworm Food and drink :chicken-and-quadrotriticale soup • coffee • haggis • sandwich • scotch Tree diseases :black spot • canker • fireblight • mildew • Titanian mold Chronology ;Stardate 3199.4 : The Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets have peace imposed upon them by the Organians. (Referenced in conversation) ;2269 : Enterprise's benchmarking survey. (In-story) ;Stardate 4011.9 : The Klingons attack the United Federation of Planets. (In-story) ;Stardate 4011.8 : The Enterprise crew consider their options. James T. Kirk takes some comfort in knowing that seventeen starbases are present to fight the Klingon invasion. They head towards Organia. (In-story) ;Stardate 4018.4 : Spock is transported to Organia, but is reflected back, creating a second Spock. (In-story) ;Stardate 4019.2 : The Enterprise continues on to Organia through Klingon space. (In-story) ;Stardate 4020.8 : The Klingons are doing so well in the war that they have time to conquer the Great Nebula Area of Orion. (In-story) ;Stardate 4150.0 : Spock One locks himself in the Medical Lab. He refuses to come out until the other Spock is dead. (In-story) ;Stardate 4181.6 : The Enterprise explains the current situation to Starfleet Command and destroys a group of Klingon ships. (In-story) ;Stardate 4194.4 : The Enterprise discusses the problem of Organia. Spock One escapes. (In-story) ;Stardate 4194.6 : The Enterprise fails to find Spock One, who escapes in a stolen shuttlecraft. (In-story) ;Stardate 4196.2 : The Enterprise receives a response from Starfleet Command which they choose to ignore. (In-story) ;Stardate 4198.0 : The Enterprise decides to transport an away team down to the surface of Organia to end the war. (In-story) ;Stardate 4200.9 : The landing party is delayed by the Spock fighting Spock One on the surface of Organia. (In-story) ;Stardate 4201.6 : The landing party reach the Organians and begin to formulate a plan. The Enterprise withdraws toward Federation space, but is surrounded by Klingon ships. (In-story) ;Stardate 4202.0 : The Organians end the war and punish the Klingons. (In-story) ;Stardate 4205.5 : The Enterprise continues on her mission. (In-story) Appendices Related media * * * * * Collections reader4.jpg|Collected in The Star Trek Reader IV. spockMustDieIT.jpg|Italian language translation collected with in Spock Deve Morire!. der große Sammelband 4.jpg|German language translation collected in Der große Sammelband IV. Background * Spock Must Die! is the first original Star Trek novel in a series. The only previous publication to this besides the initial books of the Star Trek 1 novelization series was the stand-alone young-adult novel Mission to Horatius. Images spockMustDie1.jpg|Original cover image. spockMustDie1back.jpg|Original back cover image. spock must die 1980s.jpg|Reprint edition cover image. spock must die 1985.jpg|Reprint edition cover image. spock must die 1985back.jpg|Reprint edition back cover image. spockMustDieCorgi1.jpg|Reprint edition cover image. spockMustDieCorgi2.jpg|Reprint edition cover image. spockMustDie.jpg|Reprint edition cover image. spock muss sterben.jpg|German language edition cover image. spock muss sterben1.jpg|German language edition cover image. enterprise7.jpg|German language edition cover image. terraAstra232.jpg|German language edition cover image. spockMustDieFR.jpg|French language edition cover image. spockMustDieIT.jpg|Italian language edition cover image. spockMustDieIT2.jpg|Italian language re-issue edition cover image. spockMustDieJP.jpg|Japanese language edition cover image. spockMustDieTK.jpg|Turkish language edition cover image. spockMustDieCR.jpg|Croatian language edition cover image. spock1.jpg|Spock One and Spock. spock 1.jpg|Spock One and Spock. spock1s.jpg|Spock One and Spock. crewBlish10corgi.jpg|The crew. kirkSpockMustDieCorgi.jpg|James T. Kirk and one of the Spocks. ent1701spockMustDie.jpg|''Enterprise''. spock 1s.jpg|Spock One and Spock. d7sSpockMustDie.jpg|D7 class starships. spock7.jpg|Spock. spock1sJP.jpg|Spock One and Spock. ent1701spockMustDieJP.jpg|''Enterprise''. SMDjp.jpg|Novel image. spock1sTK.jpg|Spock One and Spock. spock232.jpg|Spock. SMDcrShips.jpg|Space encounter. galileo232.jpg|''Galileo'' ent1701blish10.jpg|The . d7 startrek10.jpg|D7 class battlecruiser. ent1701grosseSammelband4.jpg|The . Connections Timeline Publication history *'1970, January': Original Bantam Books edition with photomontage cover depicting Spock, mirrored. *'1980s': Bantam Books reprints. Cover by Bob Larkin featuring Captain Kirk confronted by two Spocks. This cover was done in couple different layout styles. *'1999': Bantam Books Del Rey reprint. Cover by Kazuhiko Sano featuring Klingon battlecruisers. External link * category:tOS novels